Members of the Raising A Reader MA staff secretly love reading the Proust Questionnaire in the back of Vanity Fair. We decided to share our own version of this personality test with children’s book writer and illustrator Brian Lies (Malcolm at Midnight, 2012 and More, 2012) and the other VIP Authors attending our 2013 Dinner with an Author fundraising event at the Hampshire House.

What is your favorite book?   My Side of the Mountain  by Jean Craighead George

Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine?   Atticus Finch

Who is your favorite real life hero or heroine?   Thomas Alva Edison

If you could have dinner with one author, living or dead, who would it be?   Doris Kearns Goodwin. She’d be a great conversationalist, I think.

If you could choose one place to live for the rest of your life, where would it be?  In a small New England town with an artisanal bakery, a cheese shop and a brewpub with terrific food.

What is your motto?  Esse quam videre– it is better to be, than seem to be.

What talent would you most like to have?   To play a musical instrument well enough to play it in public.

What was your proudest moment?  Writing and illustrating books which have gotten on the NY Times bestseller list.

What do you think is the most overrated virtue?  Ambition

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Talk more with Brian Lies  and all of our VIP Authors at Raising A Reader MA’s Dinner with an Author on Wednesday, April 3 at the Hampshire House. Tickets are $250 and available by calling 617.292.BOOK (2665).